The month of August holds great importance to Indians and what better way to honour this month than to celebrate it by spreading care, love, happiness, and equality to fellow Indians within irrespective of their caste, creed, religion, age, status or economic condition.

The August calendar promises some great celebrations, but you can make this month happier by doing good along with having fun.We have compiled a list of causes that might resonate with you.

Now, let’s get started!

1. August 6th: Friendship Day

Everybody needs a friend they can count on. However, not everyone is so lucky. So many traverse the ups and downs of life with no support, all on their own. Come Friendship Day, celebrate your friendship by spending the day with your friend at an orphanage or an animal shelter.
There are over 20 million orphans in India. Of which, the overwhelming 99.7% have been abandoned by their parents.

But YOU can help bring some light and comfort into their lives by extending your hand of friendship.

Even a little amount of love and friendship can be life-changing for these kids. Let them know that they are special,, and that they are not alone. Consider volunteering either directly or collaborate with an NGO. Once you are involved, you can start by promoting their physical and mental well-being. Organise educational programs, meal plans, health facilities, and sporting events. As these can be expensive for one person to bear, you can seek out like minded people to raise funds, those who want to create as much of an impact as you do.

You can start a fundraiser and collate resources from different people to finally bring love, care, and happiness in their lives. Alternatively, you can support a preexisting fundraiser, and we have one such campaign for you.

Those of us who are fortunate enough to have sisters know how incomplete our lives would be without them. Their sacrifice, effort and constant presence is tantamount to highest achievement anyone could hope for and any success remains incomplete without their constant support.

But millions of girls don’t get their efforts reciprocated are often disadvantaged when it comes to accessing equal opportunities. This has largely been due to restrictions put upon them by societal norms. This August, YOU can help change that.

Start a fundraiser to enable underprivileged girls to have access to quality education or make a donation to a cause in her name.

This campaign about helping underprivileged girls in Karnataka to continue their education might pique your interest.

3. August 13th: International Youth Day

From Newton publishing his first manuscript on calculus at the age of 23 and revolutionising the world, progressing it to modernity, to Zuckerberg becoming a billionaire at the age of 28 by and redefining social interactions using the internet, there is little doubt that much of the world’s pivotal and era defining accomplishments have been made by the youth.

So, what fuels this desire to innovate? Well, a quick answer would be the drive and freshness of the mind that youth brings to the table. The willingness to take risks, combined with drive and the impetus to learn are the major factors that enables them to reach so far ahead of the pack.

However, not all are so fortunate. Many are unable make it past the cusp to a better life due to lack of opportunities, no proper support and poor economic conditions. When they are struggling to get by and barely subsisting, where will they they get the encouragement to venture outwards and explore the unexplored?

This is where you can step in to support the fresh and young minds who can drive the world forward. You can help out by promoting educational and health programs which are deeply beneficial. If you encounter such a cause but don’t see much around it, and would like to help, don’t lose hope. You can start a fundraiser to do just that!

You can also support other people who are already working upon such issues. In fact, we are confident that this campaign about bringing education, personal development and career counseling to the youth in villages might just be what you are looking for!

4. August 8th: World Senior Citizen’s Day

“After a lifetime of working, raising families, and contributing to the success of this nation in countless other ways, senior citizens deserve to retire with dignity” – Charlie Gonzalez

We should all appreciate the fact that without the unbroken chain of knowledge and wisdom being passed down the generations, civilisation would be heading in a completely different direction than the one towards progress. And we see this in the form of our grandparents. Their role in our lives is invaluable and reciprocating their care, love, and affection are the decent things to do.

But what is ought to be is seldom the same as what is. Over 65% of India’s senior citizens have to rely upon others for their day to day lives and are very often neglected, abandoned and victimised. Right now, our elderly have to face with the prospect of living with indignity, ungratefulness, and apathy in perpetuity.

With your effort, a lot a can be achieved. Start a fundraiser to support them and offer them a chance to live their lives with security, love, and support. You can also support people who are already doing their bit in making a difference in their deeply significant lives.

India, the largest democracy in the world will turn 71 this month and celebrate its hard fought struggle to secure freedom and self-determination of its now 1.3 billion citizens. The day long celebration is marked with The President’s address to the nation along with 21 gun salute and The Prime Minister’s flag hoisting in the nation’s capital, New Delhi.

The celebration of freedom, is in stark contrast to at least 18 million of India’s own citizens who are still caught and enslaved, by human trafficking, child labour, indentured labour, illegal confinement etc. Come Independence Day, take a stand to display solidarity and provide support so that they too can rejoice and partake in the freedom that is well deserved by all. You can start a fundraiser to raise awareness and help a victim of trafficking or forced labour fight for justice. Or you can may consider contributing to this fundraiser which aims to support children rescued from exploitative and inhuman environments.

6. August 29th: National Sports Day of India

The day commemorates the birth date of the legendary Indian hockey player, Dhyan Chand. He was instrumental in making India win the 1928, the 1932 and the 1936 Olympic gold medals in Men’s Field Hockey. Due to his skill, he is often referred to as the ‘Wizard of Hockey.’

However, in a country where cricket is the dominant source of sports entertainment, there is not much space left for other sports, let alone hockey. Many promising players drop their dream of becoming a medal-winning world class athlete due to lack of funds and support.

Also, to have the competitive edge on the world stage over other athletes, it is imperative for them to start young and have all the resources at their disposal so that they can realise their true potential.

This is where YOU can help. Start a fundraiser to support up and coming athlete who show promise, or you can support a preexisting campaign such as this.

I loved school. Once I actually pulled the exact opposite of what’s known broadly today as a ‘’sicky’’ and pretended to my parents that I was well enough to attend. My infected insides attempted to reach out in every way possible to expose the lie, mostly through snot and sneezes. I sincerely doubt the reasoning behind the betrayal was an early, deep-set appreciation for the grounding framework that education would provide me in years to come; I expect I just had an undeveloped 90s version of TFOMO (the fear of missing out). It was ‘’Victorian day’’.

But of course, this younger and (only slightly more) self righteous version of me had a point. Education was a vitally important contributor towards the development of the well rounded, volatile person I am today. Not just for providing me with the obligatory academic knowledge I needed, but for a whole understanding of the world and people I would never have been exposed to otherwise.

Despite this, many people still question the validity and effectiveness in education. In some parts of the world, education is believed to be too too expensive for the rewards you will ultimately benefit. In developing nations such as India, many children miss out on elementary education altogether due to their socio-economic backgrounds. Initiatives have now been set up across the country, such as Street to school in Kolkata, which provides funding that goes towards helping slum children have access the vital elementary education.

This is not the only reason children do not attend school. A poverty stricken family would rather trade their child’s education in favour of work to help earn a family income. Often, children are abandoned and not provided with the practical means to attend school. This could be travel, stationary or uniform. In colder regions, organisations such as Aasra Trust provide winter uniforms to help prevent children wanting to drop out of school.

Some who have been born in extenuating circumstances, such as children of women who have brothel-based mothers, need extensive development support in order for them to grow physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally before they can even consider formal schooling. The charity Apne Aap Women’s Collective provides day and night care for 2.5 years to 5 year olds for children such as this.

Disability is also a huge factor in this. Children born with mental or physical impairments face huge marginalisation in school and are 70% more vulnerable. Charities such as Samadhan focuses on differently abled children , for those with cerebral palsy, autism or mental difficulties. This enables them to access education which previously wasn’t possible.

Of course, there are also organisations such as SETU, which supports all aspects of the education process, providing complete education for 294 children including all basic means such as text books, note books and stationery, uniform and mid-day meals.

I’ve written quick list here on why education is so fundamental in developing a child. Knowledge

About Us

Impact Guru is a donation based crowdfunding platform for Indians across the world to give back to their country. We offer global crowdfunding solutions for individuals and organizations fundraising for medical causes, social causes, personal causes, creative projects, and various events. Incubated at Harvard Innovation Lab’s Venture Initiation Program in 2014 and PACT at Impact Hub in Singapore in the year 2015, Impact Guru has mobilised INR 329 Crores for various NGOs and social enterprises in more than 15 countries.